Wives, be submissive to your husbands, as is fitting to the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and don’t be bitter toward them. Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. Fathers do not exasperate your children, so they won’t become discouraged. Slaves obey your human masters in everything.  Don’t work only while being watched in order to please men, but work wholeheartedly, fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, do it enthusiastically, as something done for the Lord and not for men, knowing that you will receive the reward of an inheritance from the Lord. You serve the Lord Christ.  For the wrongdoer will be paid back for whatever wrong he has done, and there is no favoritism.  Colossians 3:18-25 HCSB

These seven verses serve as our instruction manual for marriage, parent/child relations, and boss/employee relations.  Now let me start off by saying that I went for years not even wanting to hear the whole “wives submit to your husbands” verse.  I am not a women’s libber.  I firmly believe that men should be the spiritual leaders of the household.  I firmly believe that they should pay when we go out and open doors for us.  I have no problem with this, but submit? That was a hard one.  When my husband and I got married we asked our brother in law to perform our ceremony and we asked our former pastor to do a reading from the Bible.  I told him I didn’t care which scripture he used to just let God guide him.  Well, he used Ephesians 5:22-30 which begins with wives submit to your husbands and then tells husband to love their wives as Christ loved the church.  When he began reading with “wives submit to your husbands”, my first thought was why didn’t I tell him to read anything but that.  I accepted, however, that God had lead him and that this may be an area that I need to work on.  I am sure that my husband will tell you that it has been seven years and I am still a work in progress on this one, but I am trying.

Now my former pastor later did a sermon on these verses and  he made it abundantly clear that God doesn’t expect a spouse to stay in a relationship where there is abuse.  Both spouses are given instructions here and both are expected to live up to them.  So ladies if your husband is abusive, this scripture passage is not telling you to stay around and take more abuse.

Husbands you are instructed to love your wives and not be bitter toward them.  Don’t be abusive.  And remember that abuse can be emotional, physical, or verbal.  You also should not be subjected to abuse.

If anyone is in an abusive relationship, you can contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline at               1-800-799-7233 for help in your area.

Children are instructed to obey their parents.  Again we live in a world where there is a great deal of child abuse.  I don’t believe that a simple spanking is abuse, I got a few of those in my day.  However, beating is a different story.

This is where the whole “fathers don’t exasperate your children” comes in.  Parents are not to provoke their children.  They are not to abuse their children.  Don’t jump on your child because you had a bad day at work.  This leads us into the next verse.

Yesterday we talked about being a slave to Christ and being obedient to Christ.  When we go to our jobs, we must remember that ultimately we are working for Christ.  In my career I was blessed to have some really great supervisors.  They were sensible and fairly easy to work for as long as you did your job.  However, I also encountered a few that were near impossible to work for.  Working for people like this make it very hard to maintain a Christ like demeanor.  But remember, God never calls us to do the easy stuff.

If you find yourself in a job that you love, but with a boss that is not so loveable, remember you are working for Christ.  Do your job to the best of your ability.  Don’t shirk your responsibility just because you are mad at your boss.  Do what you are supposed to do.

In my job, we wore polo style shirts with our department emblem and  name on the front.  We had jackets with the name on the back.  We represented our agency.  We were expected to represent our agency well.  I learned that if I represent God well, that I will have no problem representing the agency well.

This scripture passage also tells us that God will punish those that do wrong.  It is not our job to punish those that wrong us.  God will take care of it and will show no favoritism.  Our job is to represent God to the best of our ability.

If we put God first in all that we do, it will be  easy to follow His instruction manual.  It will be easy to be a good, wife, husband, child, parent, employee or boss.  When we focus on God everything else falls into place.  Put your faith and your focus on God and let Him handle the rest.

Have a great day!